Welcome to the Technology World

I completely forgot to blog last week, so this week’s posting will include what I was going to talk about for that blog and this week’s thoughts; it’s very convenient that both were going to be about the video that we watched in class.  After watching the complete video I really think that there is so much that needs to be talked about and I think that we covered many of the topics in class, One thing that really struck me about the video was the differences between each country and their computer/technology users.  In the first half of the video they focused more on foreign technology and how it affects the people there, mostly through looking at video games.  The second half of the video had more of an American view of technology and computer games; the big difference with the two was that in the Asian culture there were more young people playing these video games and they seemed to be a more individual form of entertainment.  When looking at the USA and their computer games they focused more on older individuals, in their 20’s and 30’s and the games that they tended to play were more of social games.  They played things like World of War craft and Second Life, games where they were socializing with other players. The part of the video that I found a bit funny was that even at the WOW conventions the people were still playing the game even when the real people were in the actual game.

            It was really interesting that we watched this video because this past week I was watching the MTV show “True Life” and they were doing a special about people who lead a different life on the internet and there was a girl who played Second Life.  It was a fascinating story because she was a famous singer on Second Life, but in real life she had horrible stage fright, she explained that in Second Life she doesn’t have to look at people and she knows they like her music they aren’t just there because there is nothing better to do.  I have such a hard time believing that this fake made up world is better than actually getting out and interacting with real people, but I think that I am a people person who needs social interaction with actual people.  The video we watched in class and the episode of “True Life” offered a glimpse into a world that I don’t really know much about and I think that it is a world that as a future teacher we need to understand because the students walking into the classroom have been raised in this technological world.